Weinstein Company via Everett Collection
In what might be the first bit of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice casting news that won’t send fans into a tailspin, DC and Warner Bros. are reportedly adding Scoot McNairy to the cast of the upcoming blockbuster. However, though Deadline revealed the news, the character that McNairy will be playing is being kept securely under wraps, along with whether or not his role is a Zack Snyder original or if he’s someone comic book fans are already familiar with. Since he’s joined the cast this late into production, it seems unlikely that McNairy’s character will play a large role in Dawn of Justice, but we have to imagine (considering his cult acclaim) it will be one of thematic sigificance. All of this leads us to believe that even though McNairy might not have a lot of screen time in this film, he’s most likely going to play a larger role in one of the other films that the studio has lined up. In other words, his Batman V Superman cameo might be the inception of McNairy's role as a member of the Justice League.
Since DC has the Justice League film slated for release immediately afterwards, it would be a good way to introduce fans to McNairy without throwing him immediately into a major superhero role. Many fans seem to be speculating that he will bring The Flash to the big screen, which is most likely due to his appearance and previous roles, as well as to the fact that DC hasn’t revealed whether they plan to recast Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern... but of course they won't.
Casting McNairy as The Flash – or any major superhero, for that matter – would be a change of pace for Warner Bros' DC series, a company that has thus far stuck to actors who are already household names for this film, between Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenberg, and Jeremy Irons. Even Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill, who were unknowns when they were chosen to help fill out the Justice League, are blockbuster stalwarts (Gadot broke through to the mainstream in the Fast and Furious movies, while Cavill had roles in everything from Immortals to Red Riding Hood). McNairy, by contrast, is a character actor, one who is well-respected amongst critics and cinephiles, but not particularly well-known by the average moviegoer.
McNairy brings something of an edge to a cast that is already packed with A-List actors and respected talents. Affleck might have more awards, by McNairy is far more "hip"; he’s still an underground celebrity, which appeals to a different kind of audience than his co-stars might. It’s an avant-garde choice for DC, a step away from the standard big-name approach that they’ve been taking recently to turn an acclaimed indie actor into a major superhero. In fact, it seems much more like the kind of casting decision that Marvel would make. This is their equivalent of casting Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man or Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Or just about anybody in Guardians of the Galaxy.
If McNairy does join the cast, it would be the closest that DC has gotten to following in Marvel’s footsteps. It doesn’t matter how quickly you can churn out blockbusters, or how much money they make, or even how heavily intertwined your universe is if you don’t have the right actors on board to inhabit the heroes. Sometimes, that means casting the best actor you can find instead of the most famous or the best looking one. McNairy would be a step in the right direction for DC in terms of building a solid cinematic universe, and depending on how fans respond to his character, it could be the model that the studio should follow when casting other roles. McNairy would give them a talented, well-liked actor with plenty of indie cred who could probably play any role they asked him to, and it would definitely benefit DC to have someone like that on their roster.
And it would benefit the rest of the world to finally see McNairy become a household name, rather than just “that guy who was in that thing.”
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Generally, indie dramedies tend to follow the same formula. There’s usually a protagonist with a mess of a life that is an endless source of conflict with their significant other/crush/family/general loved ones, and who learns to pull themselves well enough to fix those fractured relationships. Or there’s a dysfunctional family that is brought together by tragedy, or it’s a touching coming-of-age story in which the hero grows in confidence and independence and finds a family of misfits to call their own, or even a band using music to heal themselves and each other. But rarely do you ever see a guy who refuses to take off his giant paper mache head.
Luckily, Frank is set to fill that void in the market with its titular character (Michael Fassbender), an eccentric, unstable, brilliant musician who prefers to see life through slightly creepy eyeholes. The film follows Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), an aspiring musician who is recruited to the Soronprfbs, a weird, creative band that includes the abrasive theremin player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and is fronted by… well, Frank. Somewhere in Brooklyn, an indie band is being forced to re-think its schtick. During their isolated recording trip to Ireland, Jon starts posting about the band online, and they start to gain a following, but the promise of success might just turn out to be Frank’s undoing.
Magnolia Pictures
If the trailer is any indication, there’s a lot more to Frank – and Frank – lurking underneath that fake head and weird, hipster aesthetics. In an industry that is becoming more and more hesitant to break away from proven properties and blockbuster reboots, it’s exciting to see a film that takes its good-looking, well-respected and well-known star and covers up his head for the entire runtime. But Frank, who is based on the alter ego of comedian Chris Sively, also named Frank, is a strange, confusing figure, and Fassbender is exactly the kind of actor who can bring him to life, even if he can’t manage to animate his face.
And even though Frank promises to deliver all of the unique quirkiness you can possibly handle in a two-hour sitting (they do play at SXSW, after all), it also promises to be a funny, compelling and even moving film about art and the weirdos that create it. If you can get past the creepiness of Frank’s giant, unblinking eyes, that is.
Frank opens in theaters on May 9.
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AMC
Mad Men is not long for this world. To add insult to injury, it will be an entire year before you get to see the end of the final season. But if you're a fan of the mega-hit about 1960s advertisers, you are bound to have seen promos for AMC’s new series Halt and Catch Fire. This recent addition to the network seems like the perfect fit to fill the void. It follows the bad boys of the early 1980s computer industry. It offers the same blend of businessmen with mysterious motives, dark self-destructive tendencies, and nostalgia, all without feeling like a cheap carbon copy. Plus, the cast is pretty awesome.
Lee Pace: The New Don Draper
Pace plays Joe MacMillan, a former IBM employee with a secret. He comes to Texas with a mission and a bunch of ideas. He’s the driving force behind a plan to reverse engineer an IBM computer. Pace was memorable as the lovable pie-maker in Pushing Daisies. He’s also been a part of quite a few recent franchises including Twilight, The Hobbit films, as well as the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. His enigmatic character is sexy, smart, and has that same dark Draper vibe.
More Depressed than Pete Campbell
Scoot McNairy plays Gordon Clarke, a family man whose wife is doing better in the computing game than he is. The couple is licking their wounds after trying to build their own machine. Like Mad Men’s Pete Campbell, Gordon is struggling to make his mark in the industry while providing for his family. However, the 1980s brings the added pressure of having a wife as a potential competitor. He's an ambitious idealist and a depressive pushover. McNairy is nearly unrecognizable with his geek makeover. He's recently starred in Non-Stop and Argo.
Post-Modern Punky Peggy Olsen
Mackenzie Davis plays androgynous engineering prodigy Cameron Howe. She and Joe have a will they/won’t they chemistry. Like Peggy, she butts heads with Joe and challenges his authority, and in true punk style, all authority. She’s a fish out of water at the Cardiff Electric but she is everyone’s only hope. She also seamlessly enters the "boy's club." She played Chelsea, Miles Teller's love interest in That Awkward Moment.
The nice thing about the series is it isn’t just a re-skinned version of Mad Men. It definitely has the potential to provide the same tune-in appeal with a completely new take on the pretty dry world of computers. And yet, given its impact on our society the computer was a major source of contention, innovation, and success. The series also has elements of the heist film genre. Joe is either a major mastermind or completely insane. He seems to have elaborate plans or no sense of self-preservation. There is also a lot of elements inherent to the 1980s that can be explored over the course of the series, including the hardcore push of capitalism, the rise in cocaine use, and the rampant bed-hopping before the AIDS crisis. Either way, the show looks primed to deliver something very special. You can catch the first episode early on the AMC Tumblr Page.
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Universal Pictures via Everett Collection
Seventeen years ago, Harrison Ford grumbled four simple words that defined a genre, a demographic, and a country: "Get off my plane." In a pre-9/11 world, there was no shortage of jingoistic glee in a movie like Air Force One, in which a man's man American president doled out justice to a militia of Russian loyalist terrorists who made the silly mistake of attempting to hijack his flight home from Moscow. In 2014, we don't have the luxury of facing a plotline like this with reckless merriment. There's a damp gravity to the premise behind movies like Non-Stop, which in another time would have been nothing more than Taken on a Plane. But rigidly conscious of the connotations that attach to a story about a hijacking of a civilian international flight into John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, Non-Stop doesn't play too fast and loose. It still plays, and has some good fun doing so, but carefully.
From the getgo, we're anchored into the grim narrative of Liam Neeson's U.S. Air Marshall Bill Marks, who settles his demons with a healthy spoonful of whiskey. A dutiful officer even when liquored up, Marks eyeballs every nameless face in London's Heathrow Airport, silently introducing the bevvy of characters who'll come into play later on. After takeoff, Marks finds himself on the unwitting prowl for the anonymous party who's attempting to take down the red-eye through a series of manipulative text messages, well-timed threats, and clandestine killings. Chatty passenger Julianne Moore and flight attendant Michelle Dockery join Marks in his efforts to identify the mysterious criminal before the entire aircraft falls to his or her whims. So less Taken, more Murder, She Wrote.
Universal Pictures
Our roundup of suspects challenges our (and their) preconceived notions, and quite laughably — most vocal among Neeson's fellow passengers are a white beta-male school teacher (Scoot McNairy), a black computer engineer with an attitude of entitlement (Nate Parker), a softspoken Middle Eastern surgeon whose headwear gets more than a few focal shots (Omar Metwally), a middle-aged white businessman whose latest account landed him more than your house is worth (Frank Deal), an irate black youngster draped in irreverence (Corey Hawkins), and a white, bald, machismo-howling New York cop who secretly accepts his gay brother (Corey Stoll). Just a few talking heads short of Do the Right Thing, Non-Stop manages to goof on each man's (notice that they're all men — Moore, Dockery, and a barely-in-the-movie Lupita Nyong’o are kept shy of the action for most of the film) distaste for and distrust of one another as they each try to sidle up to, or undermine the harried Marks.
Non-Stop plays an interesting game with its characters and its audience, simultaneously painting the ignorance of its characters with a thick coat of comedy while pointing its finger straight out at us with accusations that we, too, thought it was whoever we just learned it wasn't, and for all the wrong reasons. "Shame on you!" Non-Stop chides, adding, "But let's keep going, this is fun!"
It is fun — that's the miraculous thing. Without any "Get off my plane"s or "Yippee ki yay"s, Non-Stop keeps its action genre silliness in check (okay, there is a moment involving an airborne gun that'll institute some serious laugh-cheers), investing all of its good time in the game of claustrophobic Clue that we can't help but enjoy. It sacrifices some of its charm in a heavy-handed third act, tipping to one side of what was a pretty impressive balancing act up until that point. But its falter is not one that drags down the movie entirely. Fun and excitement are restored, sincerity is maintained, and even a few moments of sensitivity creep their way through. We might not live in a world of President Harrison Fords any longer, but Air Marshall Liam Neesons could actually be a step up.
3.5/5
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I remember being introduced to the story of Solomon Northrup — a free black New Yorker who was kidnapped in the 1840s and forced into slavery in the South — in middle school. Through passages from his 1853 memoir and its PBS movie adaptation starring Avery Brooks, I came to understand a new sense of dreadful injustice with the difficult subject matter. Hitting the big screen for the first time, inscrutably, the tale takes form in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, which has released its first trailer.
Those familiar with McQueen's work, notably his 2011 heavy-hitter Shame, might be surprised to see how densely animated 12 Years a Slave looks to be. While his previous picture was dauntingly internal, often stretching long, long scenes without a word or express action, McQueen's new adaptation looks to be riddled with all of the material elements of Northrup's experience, exacting a fairly traditional look at the heartbreaking story.
McQueen's Shame star Michael Fassbender takes a role of acidic villainy as a plantation owner who apprehends and tortures Solomon (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The film collects a handful of drama's best players, including Brad Pitt (who also stars opposite his Inglourious costar Fassbender in the upcoming The Counselor), Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Paul Dano, as well as some interesting choices in Scoot McNairy and Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam. Oh, and a casting bonus: Quvenzhane Wallis as Ejiofor's daughter. Check out the trailer for a look at McQueen's latest vision.
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Lynn Shelton should feel right at home at Sundance, where her previous efforts Humpday and Your Sister's Sister (one of my favorite movies of last year) found plenty of fans. Shelton was known for a very specific thing, and something that is right up Sundance's snow-packed alley. Both her features are considered "mumblecore," a movement of modern film defined by small casts (and usually smaller budgets), improvised scripts, and real life situations. Her latest movie, Touchy Feely is not that. It's also not as good but, in the long run, that could be a good thing.
This movie, like Your Sister's Sister stars the always amazing Rosemary DeWitt as Abby, a massage therapist who, days after agreeing to move in with her sweet slacker boyfriend Jesse (the dreamy Scoot McNairy) develops an intense aversion to touching anyone. That's like a McDonald's fry cook developing an allergy to whatever it is they put in those fries. Abby then moves in with her brother Paul (Josh Pais) a sad-sack dentist whose daughter (Ellen Page, sporting the world's worst haircut) works with him, is in love with Jesse, and wants to get out of the house but doesn't know how. Oh, and Paul has developed a magic touch, reenergizing his floundering practice by miraculously healing his patients.
As you can see, the cast is much larger than Shelton's usual two to three actors and the script is written rather than made up on the spot. It seems that Ms. Shelton is turning into a "real" filmmaker. It's not without mixed results. While there are many shots that are fantastic (especially the depiction of skin when Abby starts her anxiety) the narrative lacks a bit of form. Strangely enough trying to impose structure over her usual process has made it a bit more scattershot and less focused. It's a little bit all over the place, with several stories fighting for control, but the characters are so winning and the actors are all so good that you enjoy the time you spend with them anyway.
Ultimately this is a story about reiki, the Eastern art of energy manipulation which Paul and Abby learn from Bronwen (an underused Alison Janney), a friend of Abby's who seems to be the only one with her life all together. Each of the characters longs for connection and to heal something that has happened to them: Abby needs to work through her relationship phobias, Paul needs to open up to new experiences, and his daughter, Ellen Paige With a Bad Haircut, needs to get over her crush and move on with her life. Their proximity to other people, whether physically touching or not, altars their energy and the connections they find and sever with other people lead them to be able to connect both to themselves and their loved ones.
This is not the best movie Shelton has presented at Sundance, but it is definitely the most ambitions. With that ambition and her innate humanistic portraits of people in need it makes me a little sad that this isn't her masterpiece but it assures me that, if this movie isn't great, then the next one is bound to be amazing.
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Actor Scoot McNairy isn't letting his deluge of roles in the year's most prestigious films get to his head. The actor is aware that he's now regularly working with some of the best directors in the business, but he's not allowing himself to make a misstep. "You try and pick jobs you're right for," McNairy tells Hollywood.com. "Some actors make that mistake. I'm sure I'll make the same mistake as well. But you take things you can tackle. Always be pushing yourself, challenging yourself, but don't choose something that's beyond you."
After a decade of featured roles in both TV and movies, McNairy is hitting a stride, and rightfully so. He's a chameleon, capable of fitting into any ensemble, owning the spotlight but never stealing it. In 2012, the character actor appeared in an eclectic trio of films: as Joe Stafford, a member of the Iranian embassy who questions CIA agent Tony Mendez's (Ben Affleck) plan of escape in Argo; as Frankie, a burnt out petty thief who takes on the mob to disastrous consequences in Killing Them Softly; and Jeff Dennon, a local farmer contending with Matt Damon's pro-frakking salesman in Promised Land. The throughline between all three is McNairy's unexpected, ferocious commitment to disappearing into the roles. Regardless of the size, the actor approaches them each with the same integrity.
"I look at a leading role the same way as supporting roles," McNairy says. "You read the script and see that it's a great story. So then you ask, 'Who do I want to be in that story?'"
McNairy began his acting career a decade ago, after leaving his home in Paris, Texas, to pursue a career in cinematography. "I wanted to be a cameraman. I had done a few independent films in Austin, but I realized I wanted to shoot. I thought it was something I could really excel in." Acting diverted McNairy's attention, which led him to commercial roles and big screen comedies, like D.E.B.S., Sleepover, and Art School Confidential. McNairy recalls feeling a need to challenge himself beyond comedy, which came easy to him. He set off hunting for meaty drama and found it in Gareth Edwards' 2010 indie sci-fi Monsters. "Monsters was something that elevated me, opened some people's eyes."
A common misconception about Hollywood: Monsters may have introduced the world to McNairy's dramatic side, but it didn't hand him job after job on a silver platter. The actor admits it's still a process of rigorous auditioning and directors gambling on him. He wasn't always confident. McNairy "never thought there would be a chance in hell" that he would land the lead in Killing Them Softly. "I know that [director] Andrew Dominick took a huge risk putting me in Killing Me Softly. He had never seen Monsters, he'd never seen anything."
What sold Dominick was McNairy's unidentifiable accent for Frankie, which he suggests was "based on environments in the script: cold, grey, dark." Worried that the slightly goofy style may not click with Dominick in the audition, McNairy was convinced by his wife to go with his gut. Invaluable advice. "It wasn't hard to find the voice, but it was hard to authenticate." When Dominick finally recruited McNairy, the demand was stronger than anything he'd ever done. "[Andrew] was really, really keen on performances," McNairy says. "There wasn't a minute on set in that movie where they weren't rolling camera. He just puts a 1000-foot mags [of film] in the camera and we keep rolling. He really hounded me on performance. One day we did 40 takes on just a quick shot. He just wanted to get it right."
One of McNairy's biggest scenes in the film is opposite star Brad Pitt. McNairy had obvious nerves about meeting the movie star, but he used that to his advantage. "My relationship with him came from me wanting to meet him, putting that energy and putting it into the scene," McNairy says. "At the beginning of the shoot, we didn't speak at all. I never met him until the third day of shooting. The bar scene, that whole scene was the first scene we shot together and we never spoke throughout the entire process of that shoot. I think that's what I wanted to put into it. I wanted to be super f**king intimidated by him. Not try to have to act, but feel it." In the end, Pitt turned out to be the perfect sparring partner. "Brad is an incredibly generous actor. He accommodates the other person as well as works with them. He'll mold to the person around him. Not many actors are like that."
If Killing Them Softly was about McNairy embracing his natural instincts, Argo was about stripping them away. McNairy says Affleck had the large ensemble — portraying eight U.S. diplomats trapped in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis — live together for five days before shooting. Or as McNairy calls it "Get-your-egos-out-of-the-way camp." McNairy sites the experience as essential to the process. "I think you have to be aware of [ego]. I'd love to say I don't have an ego, but everyone has it. I try and keep myself out of what's being said and talked about. Focus on the work, focus on the work, focus on the work."
For Argo, McNairy sported a haircut straight from the '70s and a mustache to boot. He was happy to disappear, saying that he loves costumes and rarely wants to work in an environment that feels normal. "I don't even like rehearsing at my house. Even for auditions, I try and put on some kind of outfit. It's that transformation. Trying to step into something else." McNairy cites Fight Club, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Machinist, and this year's Rust and Bone among his favorite films — no surprise, considering the gargantuan change the actors involved went to bring the films to life. "You want to step away from yourself. I'm attracted to people who can do so little and say so much. "
McNairy continues to prioritize roles that speak to him over any calculated career moves, an example of this being his smaller part in Damon and John Krasinki's Promised Land. He goes after movies that he would want to watch, talent he would want to work with. The actor recalls watching Steve McQueen's Hunger and being blown away by Michael Fassbender's performance. He insisted to his reps that he had to be involved in the director's next project. While timing didn't work out for the award-winning Shame, he managed to land himself a role in the director and actor's next collaboration, Twelve Years a Slave. "I play a circus con man," McNairy says, excitement in his voice. "The one who convinces Chiwetel [Ejiofor], who is playing a slave, to come and run with us. Inevitably, we sell him to slavery. Sometime in the first 15 to 20 minutes of the film."
McNairy is currently filming Non-Stop in New York City, an action thriller set almost entirely on a plane from Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) that puts him alongside Liam Neeson. It's a welcome change of pace for the actor. "[It's] something I haven't played and puts me in a different light," McNairy says. "Someone with military training. I also wanted to work with Liam Neeson. Schindler's List — I watched that movie all the time."
The sudden upsurge in big screen face time has left McNairy relatively unfazed. That's a good thing, as the actor sounds ready to jump at any juicy, potentially risky part that crosses his path. "It is a business and there's a bunch of bulls**t involved in it, but you gotta keep the fun. Let why it was fun 10 years ago remind you why it's enjoyable."
[Photo Credit: Focus Features; The Weinstein Company; Warner Bros. Pictures]
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On the screen (big or small), the airwaves, and in the bookstore, we were captivated by new talent in 2012. From fresh faces with fresh voices, like Lena Dunham and Rebel Wilson, to veterans who were really given the chance to shine this year, like Channing Tatum and Jonathan Banks, here are the 20 stars that grabbed hold of our attention in 2012 — and we hope won't let go any time soon.
TV's Breakout Stars
Lena Dunham
She may be a polarizing figure, but even naysayers can’t deny that this was the year of Lena Dunham. The writer/director/producer/author/actress barreled right into the upper echelon of entertainers with her stripped down, brutally honest HBO series Girls and rolled right into a $3.6 million dollar book deal. And all this at the age of 26. As her Girls character Hannah Horvath mumbles while high on opium tea: Dunham’s not necessarily the voice of her generation, but she’s certainly a voice of a generation. Plus, Louis C.K. agrees that what she’s doing is “important,” and he’s pretty tough to argue with.
Max Greenfield
In just one season, Max Greenfield's wonderfully douchey character Schmidt joined the ranks of classic singularly named sitcom sidekicks like Kramer and Fez. Greenfield's nuanced performance as the (actually quite insecure deep down inside) Schmidt helped make New Girl into one of the best comedies on television, and forever changed the way we said "chutney."
Mindy Kaling
After years of toiling away behind a desk on The Office, Mindy Kaling is finally front and center in her Fox comedy The Mindy Project. Don't let the crappy name fool you, the comedy about a ditzy doctor looking for love in a crazy office is more original and off-kilter than it would suggest.
Jessica Paré
It would be impossible to sing the praises of the brilliant Season 5 of Mad Men without singing the praises of the sexy, talented woman who sang 2012's most unexpected viral sensation: "Zou Bisou Bisou." Whether you loved or hated Paré's Megan, her impact on the show this season was undeniable.
Chris Messina
Every girl needs a guy to drool over, right? For Mindy Kaling, it's the somewhat jerky macho man played by Chris Messina on The Mindy Project. With character turns in Argo, Celeste and Jesse Forever, and recurring spots on Damages and (ugh) The Newsroom, this dreamboat hasn't had any time to rest.
Damian Lewis
As war hero turned terrorist turned (maybe?) CIA ally Sergeant Nicolas Brody on Showtime's acclaimed series Homeland, Damian Lewis kept us on the edge of our seats Sunday after Sunday. Despite Claire Danes' quivering chin's attempt to steal every scene, Lewis' Brody acted as the show's emotional heart. In 2012, Lewis took home the Best Actor in a Drama Series Emmy he so deserved.
Jonathan Banks
When an actor has been in the game as long as Jonathan Banks has, making a career on dozens of supporting and guest roles, it’d take a superhuman performance to launch him to the forefront of the pop culture conversation. After two years as Breaking Bad’s no-nonsense backup player Mike Ehrmantraut, Banks earned colossal notoriety with his turn in the AMC series’ fifth season. Mike, always a well liked character, became the show’s central pull when Banks instilled in him the strength, frustration, and pain that award-caliber performances are made of. His rise and fall as a prominent player in the business dealings of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and in his own relationship with his beloved granddaughter exhibited everything the crime drama mainstay Banks had at his disposal, about which we might never have known. Thankfully, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan gave this once nameless character the spotlight this year, placing in Banks' capable hands the show’s pulsing humanity.
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Quvenzhane Wallis
It always sparks chatter when a newcomer to the acting game gives a breathtaking performance — but Quvenzhane Wallis is the extreme. A five-year-old first-time actor at the time of her role in the magnificent tearjerker Beasts of the Southern Wild, Wallis doesn’t just take your breath away, she lays claim to your entire respiratory system. No performance in all of 2012 was bigger than young Wallis’. Despise her age, she managed to not only to keep up with director Benh Zeitlin’s Earth-shattering parable for the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina, but she launched the story to otherworldly levels of emotional resonance. Wallis’ role in the feature has attracted her to great auteur Steven McQueen, which means that she’ll be enjoying a long, steady career of quality projects as long as she might wish to.
Ezra Miller
Considering readers’ devotion to Stephen Chbosky’s classic, life-affirming novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the celebration of the book’s big screen adaptation is all the more impressive. One of the most important elements in the construction of such a perfect adaptation is the casting, one of the many areas in which writer/director Chbosky triumphed: Logan Lerman was a terrific Charlie and Emma Watson a stellar Sam. But standing out among them was Ezra Miller, who brought so much life and humor, so much pain and turmoil into the character of Patrick that you’ll forget you ever imagined him in another light. Earlier in the year, Miller dazzled and horrified as the tormented teenage star of We Need to Talk About Kevin, inspiring shivers and tears with his incarnation of the dark, disturbed main character driven to horrible violence. As such, we can call Miller’s range boundless.
Rebel Wilson
It’s no small feat to steal the spotlight from comedy bigwigs like Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, especially when you only have a few short lines in the entire movie – but that’s exactly what Rebel Wilson did in Bridesmaids. This hilarious Aussie comedian became a household name after that, going on to star in another raunchy wedding-themed film Bachelorette, and becoming the first person cast in the collegiate a capella comedy Pitch Perfect.
Dane DeHaan
DeHaan looks like a young Leonardo DiCaprio — meaning he would have been fine taking easy parts that capitalized on his good looks. Luckily, in 2012 the actor did so much more than that, parlaying his time on In Treatment into a string of roles in risky works like Chronicle, Lawless, and Lincoln. 2013 is also looking bright, with The Place Beyond the Pines, a sprawling family drama that debuted to raves at this year's Toronto Film Festival, arriving in the Spring, and Sundance 2013 premiere Kill Your Darlings, which DeHaan costars in alongside Daniel Radcliffe. Oh, and he just landed a juicy part in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in case all that heavy material was starting to scare you.
Channing Tatum
“An hour [to sum up] the year? Am I supposed to just scratch the surface of Channing Tatum's meteoric rise?" We feel your pain, Liz Lemon. There's no way this entry would do justice to the year Tatum had, what with his People's Sexiest Man Alive title and eclectic, surprising performances on the big screen (Magic Mike, 21 Jump Street, The Vow). It's his world now, we're all just just happily living in it.
Scoot McNairy
After his impressive turn in the 2010 sci-fi indie film Monsters, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood picked up on McNairy and wrangled him for bigger features. Going quiet for more than a year, McNairy dominated the Fall award season with eclectic roles in Argo, Killing Them Softly, and Promised Land. The actor held his own against big names like Ben Affleck and Brad Pitt, a nearly impossible task made easy by McNairy's ability to slip into any shoes, from criminal junkie to farmhand to Iranian embassy worker.
Up Next: Music and MoreThe Biggest Breakouts of Music, Sports, and Literature
Ryan Lochte
Though he may now be the world’s most famous “Sex Idiot” per 30 Rock, Ryan Lochte broke out in 2012 thanks to his skills in the pool. At least initially. After winning five medals in London during the Summer Olympics, Lochte’s fame grew thanks to his go-to exclamation ("Jeah!"), his economy of words (“I like swimming because racing”), and of course, that grill. Oh, and he’s pretty hot too.
Phillip Phillips
Despite his extensive health problems (which plagued him through his run on American Idol), Phillips has managed to carve out a nice little fan base with his ubiquitous hit “Home.” After winning the Fox singing competition, Phillips recorded his first and only Mumford and Sons-ish single, sending it straight to NBC as the theme of this year’s Summer Olympics in London. Now, the familiar trotting and cooing of Phillips’ musical equivalent of comfort food can be heard just about everywhere. If only that album of his would come our way a little faster!
Ed Sheeran
If you turned on the radio at some point this year, you know who Ed Sheeran is. This English singer-songwriter is best known for his hit, “The A Team,” and for co-writing “Little Things,” “Over Again,” and “Moments” for super group boy band One Direction. He also played at the Olympics' closing ceremony and co-wrote (and is heard on) Taylor Swift’s track “Everything Has Changed.”
Frank Ocean
This year, Ocean broke out of his role as a ghost writer for big acts like Justin Bieber and John Legend and released one of the most beloved albums of 2012, Channel Orange, which features singles like “Pyramids” and “Sweet Life” characterized by subdued rhythms, experimental elements, and haunting melodies that music-lovers quickly embraced. But it wasn’t simply his talent and flair for innovation that shined in 2012, it was his bravery. Ocean became one of the first openly gay hip-hop artists in mainstream music, and was quickly embraced for his openness in a world often characterized as homophobic.
Jess Walter
With six novels and a prestigious journalism career under his belt, Jess Walter is in no way a newcomer. However, his extraordinary novel Beautiful Ruins not only snagged a spot on the New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2012, but also made him a household name. Walter's sweeping tale of love, which spans five decades and takes us from the Italian countryside in the 1960s to Hollywood pitch meetings in the present day, is the kind of story that stays with you. Walter is similarly a talent who is sure to weather the ages.
Gillian Flynn
Gillian Flynn's first two novels (Sharp Objects and Dark Places) earned critical acclaim and book awards buzz, but no book made more of a splash this year than Flynn's tightly written thriller Gone Girl. The eye-catching black and neon cover was a subway staple, and book clubs all over the country discussed the novel's big twist at length. Now, Flynn is in talks to adapt her suspenseful tale of betrayal and murder to the big screen, ensuring we'll see much more of her, as well as her unforgettable characters, Nick and Amy, in the years to come.
E. L. James
After the year she's had, E. L. James hardly needs an introduction. In 2012, James transformed from a British housewife writing Twilight fan fiction in her spare time to the year's best-selling author (for her erotic Fifty Shades trilogy). She was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World, and one of Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People. Not too shabby.
[Photo Credit: WENN (2); INF Photo]
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With Killing Them Softly opening nationwide today, it’ll be the first time in five years that the words “Directed by Andrew Dominik” have appeared on an American movie screen. That delay is because the Australian director’s last film, his U.S. debut The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, only made back half of its $30 million production budget with its worldwide grosses. Even worse, it netted only $3.9 million in the States. When I ask him if he sees Killing Them Softly as a natural follow-up to Jesse James, Dominik, 45, merely says, “I guess I don’t really think that way. I’m not in exact control of what I do. This was just the project I could get going.” The fact then that the Weinstein Company is opening Killing Them Softly in 2,424 theaters shows just how much confidence they have in the film—and Dominik’s vision.
A razor-sharp thriller starring Brad Pitt as a philosophically-minded hitman hired by a mid-level boss (Richard Jenkins) to hunt down the brainless twerps (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn) who robbed a mob-protected card game, Killing Them Softly is also a not-so-subtle commentary on the intersection of criminality and capitalism. Though the George V. Higgins novel it’s based on, Cogan’s Trade, came out in 1974, Dominik set his plot in October 2008, right in the middle of the worst financial collapse the United States had faced since the Great Depression. As characters throughout the film discuss the power plays they hope will land them big bucks, TV monitors show George W. Bush and Barack Obama discussing the turmoil that had engulfed the economy four years ago. The implication is clear: the 2008 bailout that saved Wall Street despite its bad behavior isn’t that different from the windfalls awaiting several characters in the film who’ve proven that crime sometimes does pay. Near the end of Killing Them Softly, Pitt’s Jackie Cogan even says, “America is not a country. It’s just a business.” That speaks very much to a theme Dominik previously developed in Jesse James: that there’s a disparity between the way we see ourselves, as individuals and as a country, and the way we really are.
But don’t think this is all just political sturm und drang. Killing Them Softly is actually a comedy. One of the hoods who robs a cardgame has a Cruella De Vil-style get-rich-quick scheme to steal dogs. And James Gandolfini plays the anti-Tony Soprano as a hitman associate of Cogan’s who, to say the least, has lost his killer instinct. “If the film took itself seriously, I don’t think it would be much fun,” Dominik says. “It’d be like preaching to the choir or something.”
We asked the director to expound upon some of his film’s ideas, and Dominik was more than willing to oblige.
Hollywood.com: How do you think the comedic tone of the film appealed to the actors?
Andrew Dominik: Well, Brad signed on thirty minutes after I pitched Killing Them Softly to him, because we had worked together before obviously. I think it was Jim [Gandolfini] who really got into the whole comedy aspect. Jim is always just going to make his guy real. I wanted him because he’s such an intensely sensitive guy, and there’s a real sensitivity to everything that he does. I could imagine Jim playing this really f***ed-up character and caring about him. That was my motive for getting him.
HW: Gandolfini’s character in the film is almost like the burntout end-state of Tony Soprano. A once formidable player now rendered useless. I thought there was a great mix of comedy and pathos in that character. He could have been a cartoon but you end up feeling really sorry for him. I did, anyway.
AD: Yeah, me too. There’s a real sensitivity inside the guy, even though he’s so f***ed up.
HW: Even though the two films are very different stylistically, I feel there is kind of connection between Killing Them Softly and Jesse James thematically.
AD: I think that Killing Them Softly is a little more one-sided in its view--my view--and a little more pop-y. I think Jesse James tries to look at its characters in a little more balanced way, as two sides of the same coin.
HW: It’s interesting you decided to bring a George Higgins novel to the screen, considering that only one of his novels had been adapted as a movie [1970’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which became a 1973 film starring Robert Mitchum], but especially that you decided to update it and set it in 2008. What inspired that choice?
AD: I got Cogan’s Trade because I had seen and loved The Friends of Eddie Coyle. So I looked Higgins up and saw that this guy was like a treasure trove. He’d written a whole lot of stories that had a real sense of authenticity about them, since he’d been a prosecutor. This book is a really simple crime and punishment story, even though it takes place entirely in the criminal world. But when it really caught fire for me was when I realized it’s a story about an economic crisis, and how it paralleled what was going on in the world at the time. And so updating it really seemed like the thing to do.
CB: There’s a lot of political commentary in this film, usually conveyed when we hear speeches from George W. Bush and Barack Obama talking about the financial collapse on the background. Were you trying to present this story as a microcosm for what was happening in the country at large?
AD: Yes, very much so. I think the attraction of crime movies is that they are little stories about capitalism. This is the genre in which the capitalist ideal is presented upfront. It’s the one genre in which it’s completely acceptable for characters to care about money, and maybe that’s the appeal of it. In some ways I find the people in crime films much more recognizable, much more like the people I meet in real life, than I do, say, characters in romantic comedies or other movies that on some level are concerned with reaffirming family values. Also, my experience of America, approaching it as an outsider, is just how much of life in this country is based around the dollar. This is a really, really capitalist country. And to me it seems there’s a similarity between the way criminals operate and the way everybody else does. I don’t know whether crime is dictating business or business is dictating crime.
CB: Do you feel that the criminal characters in your film are more honest, or at least less hypocritical, about capitalism than legitimate businessmen?
AD: Maybe. Maybe yes and maybe no. A guy like Obama has to persuade people to get what he wants. Obviously a power player in a criminal organization doesn’t have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants. So criminals don’t have the same problems that a president might. However, the president—or the government in general—have to engage in marketing in order to persuade people, engage in marketing to sell them on an idea. Obama’s great at singing a song of togetherness, but the American idea of freedom is really just the freedom to compete.
CB: In showing clips of both Bush and Obama, I think you’re one of the few to indicate that perhaps they are two sides of the same coin. As different as people would like to think they are, they represent the same system and are subject to its faults and failings as much as anybody, regardless of all the Hope and Change rhetoric.
AD: To me, regardless of who’s in office, the government is strangled by business. And the government’s priorities are dictated by business. I mean, why does America, even after healthcare reform, still not have free universal healthcare? I’m sure it has something to do with the insurance lobby.
CB: In fact, that’s one of the final lines of the film when Brad Pitt’s Jackie says “America’s not a country, it’s a business.” Was that you speaking through that character?
AD: I suppose so, but it’s only one half of the story. America used to be a fantastical place, you could get everything here. And everything was produced here. In some ways I think it’s more like cronyism than capitalism that’s brought the whole thing down. This is the country where the lightbulb was invented and the movie camera and the telephone, just about every f***ing thing you can imagine was invented in this melting pot. This was a place where so many ideas came together and innovation was encouraged. But it seems like the corporations have a stranglehold on everything now. America’s moved so much of its production and manufacturing offshore, it’s become a nation of middlemen.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: The Weinstein Company]
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Title

Landed the lead role in "In Search of a Midnight Kiss;" also served as executive producer.

Appeared in the music video for Regina Spektor's "Fidelity."

Starred opposite Brad Pitt in "Killing Them Softly."

Portrayed an American hostage in Ben Affleck's "Argo."

Cast in Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land."

Made film debut in the indie "Wrong Numbers."

Cast in the sci-fi film "Monsters."

Summary

"Scoot" implies a fast pace or rapid advancement; for "Killing Them Softly" (2012) actor Scooter McNairy his career trajectory from no-name actor to Brad Pitt co-star couldn't have happened more slowly. The Dallas native, whose nickname (his real name is John) is a jokey reference to the way he scooted around as a baby, grew up obsessively watching movies and eventually migrated to California to attend film school for cinematography. When he landed his debut role as a disaffected teen in "Wrong Numbers" (2001), however, he realized creating something in front of the camera was just as rewarding as working behind it. The quietly intense actor quickly amassed a string of roles portraying young, rebellious, slightly on the edge characters in everything from films such as "Wonderland" (2003) and "D.E.B.S." (2004), to TV shows like "Good Girls Don't..." (BBC, 2004) and "Six Feet Under" (HBO, 2001-05). In between portraying an oddly named art student in "Art School Confidential" (2006) and appearing in the music video for Regina Spektor's "Fidelity," the ambitious McNairy also formed his own production company, The Group Films, in an effort to create the kinds of films and roles he wanted to see but no one was offering. His first outing as a producer came on "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" (2007), the surprise Independent Spirit Award-winning hit in which he played a bitter Los Angeleno who finds himself on an unexpected date on New Year's Eve. Directed by Alex Holdridge of "Wrong Numbers," the film's massive success (it grossed over $1 million on a $25,000 budget) propelled McNairy to even bigger roles. After portraying a jaded journalist in the 2010 experimental sci-fi film "Monsters," in 2012 McNairy gave a trio of performances that brought him out of the shadows and into the spotlight: none-too-bright petty thief Frankie in Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly;" defiant American hostage Joe Stafford in Ben Affleck's "Argo;" and struggling farmer Jeff Dennon in Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land." Scoot McNairy isn't a late-bloomer - it just took us awhile to catch on.

Education

Name

Notes

"Stay in your subconscious. Be free. Be willing to make mistakes. Be willing to fall on your face. The mistakes you make as an actor are some of your most golden moments." - from www.Elle.com, Nov. 30, 2012

Real name is John; his father called him Scoot as a baby because of the way he scooted around the house.

Before he worked with Ben Affleck in "Argo," McNairy starred with him in a 2006 European commerical for Axe deoderant.

"I was out here, struggling to get the roles I wanted, so I opened a production company to start making films that I wouldn’t normally get cast in and that I wanted to see. Producing was just an extension of my love for storytelling." - from www.Backstage.com, Sep. 6, 2012